Super
"Super" is the 11th episode in season 1, and the 11th produced hour of Person of Interest. It originally aired on January 12, 2012. Synopsis Reese works the computer while Finch does the legwork with their latest POI, a building super who keeps too close an eye on his tenants. Meanwhile, Detective Carter may finally get her long-awaited glimpse into a case. Origin of the Title Super is short for superintendent or building maintenance and management. Main Plot Points * Person of Interest: Ernie Trask, a jovial apartment superintendent who makes big claims about his former life. * Reese's injury is treated, and they move to him to the Trask's apartment building to recover. * While Reese's injuries heal, he and Finch must reverse roles, leaving Finch to manage the footwork while Reese handles the technology. * Carter becomes increasingly suspicious of what Finch and Reese are doing; Finch arranges for her to intervene with a POI. Flashbacks * The Machine's involvement with the relevant numbers was touched upon * The Machine detected a threat involving Nathan Ingram * Alicia Corwin and Denton Weeks were introduced Episode Notes * This episode plays with the reversal of Reese and Finch's traditional roles. With Reese recovering from his injuries, Finch must undertake the team's fieldwork while Reese must grapple with the team's technology to monitor activity in the building. * There are several references to Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film Rear Window in this episode: **Reese's leg injury corresponds to Jeff Jeffries' (Jimmy Stewart) broken leg. **A flower bed that Ernie Trask was maintaining in the episode is reminiscent of the flower bed where Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) was thought to have buried his wife. **In the end, the perpetrator falls out of a window. **Reese's alias name "Mr. Hayes". The screenplay for the film was written by John Michael Hayes. * The Ernie Trask character includes similarities to a character in an episode of This American Life. The episode, called “The Super”, describes a Latin American super who bragged about owning a herd of animals and being a bigshot in his native home. He had to leave because it was “bad for his health.” It turns out that his tall tales weren’t just stories. * When Ingram states that he is the "public face" of IFT, implying that Finch is the "private face" of the company, it may be a reference to the ancient Japanese concept of [http://www.nakasendoway.com/?page_id=1442 Omote and Ura]. Omote refers to the image which an individual, a company, or any institution wishes to present to outsiders or the public in general. As with any image, omote is composed of a mixture of reality, myth, and lie. Ura is the opposite of omote. It is the reality behind the omote image with the myth and lies of the image stripped away. * The apartment Finch rented for Reese is located in The Apthorp, a historic apartment building and New York city landmark at 390 West End Avenue. * Adderall is used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy. * Finch leaves Reese a stack of books to read (none first editions) that all deal primarily with early American History including Tocqueville's seminal work "Democracy in America". *When Finch explains how the Machine works, he mentions the bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994. The so-called AMIA bombing occurred on July 18, 1994 killing 86 people and wounding several hundreds. Production Notes * Ingram's name was mentioned for the first time. * The overhead scene of Rick Morris falling to the ground was mirrored and reused at the beginning of , although the ground below is different. Bloopers and Continuity Errors *In the morgue, somebody is leaning against the wall when Finch pours out the money. * When Carter loses the CIA tailing her, as she exits the building you can see fans taking her picture in the distance. * The Server Racks shown during the flashbacks have been published by Dell around 2010, the flashback plays in 2005. Trivia * This episode features the longest passage of time during events in the present. The face-off at the end of occurs on December 15, 2011, and the surveillance of Trask starts in January 2012. * When Finch eats at the restaurant where Lily is working, Reese calls him on the phone and greets him with "Good afternoon, Mr. Finch." just like Finch usually greets Reese. This is an allusion to the roles of Finch and Reese being reversed in this episode. *The staging of the scene where Carter evades the CIA is reminiscent of the train scene in the movie The French Connection where Gene Hackman's character, Popeye Doyle, is following the drug smuggler Charnier. Charnier leaves the train car and he follows. He tries to hide in plain sight, but Charnier gets the best of him and slips back into the train just in time to wave goodbye. *The license plates on Evan's CIA Tahoe GHO-7561 have been used before. They were last seen on Hector Alvarez's Pontiac in Get Carter and before that they were on Samuel Douglas' Range Rover in The Fix. See the License Plates of Interest page for even more connections. *Mark Snow uses the line "Coffee is for closers." which is from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross which was a scene created for the movie version of the original play. Quotes *"Your name is Farouk Madani. You were the best surgeon in Najaf. But you can't afford a license in the states because you send all your money to your family. Stitch him up, no questions asked, and you can be a doctor again." (Finch, to Dr. Madini) *"Are you guys this sloppy when you tail Al-Qaeda?" (Carter to Snow) *"I'm afraid the machine waits for no man" (Finch, to Reese) *"Don't you have anything to unpack pulls out his gun?" (Finch, to Reese) *"Once we're in we can turn every webcam, nanny cam, security system and laptop on the network into our eyes and ears." (Finch) "Just like the Machine." (Reese) "I suppose. If one apartment building were the entire world. (Finch) *"Amber in 714 is... healthy." (Reese) "Somehow I doubt that's what alerted the Machine." (Finch) *"Looks like somebody went after this with a hammer smirks." (Trask to Reese) *"I feel like a rat in a maze. How do you put up with this?" (Finch to Reese) *"Safe to say he's our perpetrator." (Finch) "I don't know Finch. Sure you don't want to double check with your Machine?" (Reese) "Yes, that joke never gets old." (Finch) *"Finest surveillance training on the planet and a New York cop gave you the slip!" (Snow to his agents) *"Where the hell have you been?" (Reese) "Now you know how I feel." (Finch) *"Coffee is for closers." (Snow, to Evans) *"You gotta love a girl with good security habits" (Finch, to Reese) *"Yes, I'm sure the CIA will be very impressed. When they shoot you!" (Finch, to Reese) *"Poke him in the eyes? That's your technique?" (Finch, to Reese) *"This may be the best catered stake out in history." (Finch, to Reese) *"I don't eat in the field, Finch. Never know when you'll have to move fast" (Reese) *"I'm going to go out on a limb and guess your name isn't Burdett" (Carter, to Finch) * "If Congress knew about this machine you're building..... you would go to jail." (Alicia Corwin, to Ingram) * "I don't suppose they'd let us be cell-mates." (Ingram, to Corwin) * "What I need you to explain to me is... How did some damn computer program spot a traitor when federal agents couldn't?" (Weeks, to Ingram) es:Super it:Super 111 111 Category:Season 1 Episodes Category:Episodes with Multiple Persons of Interest Category:Episodes with Finch Flashbacks